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OPINION

Keeping up with the Joneses

Keeping up with the Joneses
July 30, 2014
Keeping up with the Joneses

Today from London to Beijing, New York to Tokyo, tell any Millennial this and they will a) weep, b) (more likely) rant that it's not fair. And if you thought life in Zurich was only for oligarchs, try Lusaka. Are their expectations too high, or is the world a very different place?

First, they are more educated than previous generations - and truly believe this gives them the 'right' to a better lifestyle. Sorry, decent standards of living only come about with economies that provide them. Wasting years, and trillions of pounds, in secondary, tertiary and postgraduate schooling, on average students will not cut the mustard. One has to understand that the whole educational system today is a sausage factory, run on commercial lines, which currently serves only the institutions themselves.

Next: availability of jobs. I realise that hamburger flippin' work is unlikely to be on the wish list of many, but what's wrong with it? We've all got to start somewhere and whatever one might think, it's better than doing nothing. Discipline, camaraderie, planning and dignity for starters. One step at a time, but a graduate has debts, aspirations and ideas well above his station; their problem, not mine.

 

UK average earnings

  

Clothes somehow get sorted - regularly, and all too often top of the range. The astounding thing about many people today is that, with barely a pot to piss in, they have so much 'stuff'. Not content with one outfit, they crave a new look for each occasion - then have to pay shelf storage to stash the clobber. Cars, interestingly, are less of an issue, with upscale bicycle shops moving into old premium car dealerships - unless you live in the countryside, where driving is as essential as it ever was because much so-called public transport is simply not fit for purpose. And this is the other interesting fact: their overwhelming preference for inner city/ metropolitan life. Not for them the thatched cottage with a rambling rose around the door. Which is a 'good thing' really as providing services to an urban population is so much cheaper.

 

UK new car registrations

 

The bank is rarely visited in person because this generation believes everything is easier online. But, and this is a big but, the mortgage needed is often incompatible with earnings; either because they're not steady or properly documented, but usually because the ratios are out of kilter with credit rating criteria. Maybe this is what we have to look into.

 

UK house prices

   

Taking out a £100,000 mortgage in 1992, on a joint salary of £25,000 at an interest of 10.00 per cent, means interest-only payments of £10,000 a year. What salary do I need today, and how much could I borrow, with rates at 2.50 per cent, for 10K? Borrowing £400,000 would need a joint income of £100,000.

 

UK mortgage approvals